Lopez second as Huskies lead 2A parade

2A Mat Classic recap

TACOMA - Between Ephrata, Othello and Quincy, the Columbia Basin had 15 wrestlers in action at Class 2A for the Mat Classic XX state championships.

However, only one of those 15 - Othello sophomore Reuben Lopez - got to the final mat on Saturday night, and Lopez lost his 130-pound championship bout to Selah's Carlos Torres.

With powerhouse Deer Park scoring 167.5 to obliterate the competition for the team title, Othello head coach Ruben Martinez had hoped his six qualifiers might do enough to warrant a top-four finish and a team trophy. But the young Huskies showed some nerves on the state's biggest stage and wound up 14th with 42 points.

Quincy's five-member team compiled 32 points for 21st place, while Ephrata placed two of its four competitors and had 10 points for 39th place.

Lopez put on substantial weight from last season, when he finished sixth as a 112-pound freshman. He was one of the top-ranked 130-pounders coming into state, and showed why with three impressive wins to start the tournament.

Lopez opened with a 21-14 victory over Blaine's Kyler Mackowiak, outgunned Klahowya's John Hays 21-12, and pinned West Valley-Spokane's Justin Fiman at 5 minutes, 50 seconds, earning him a third meeting with Torres.

The pair had split their previous meetings, with Lopez beating Torres for the Central Washington Athletic Conference district title and Torres getting revenge at the following weekend's regional meet. Martinez felt Lopez lacked his usual aggressiveness in Saturday's 5-2 loss.

"I don't know if it was just his first time being in the state finals, but he's wrestled so much better than that," Martinez said of Lopez. "It didn't look like him wrestling out there.

"You never want to hear a kid tell you that he's nervous right before he's on the mat, and that's about the first thing that came out of his mouth," the coach added.

Perhaps the Huskies' biggest surprise of the weekend was 285-pounder Michael Carmona, a returning medalist, going 0-2. The senior was ill during his week of preparation, and Martinez felt that played a major factor.

"I didn't realize his stomach hurt that much until after he was all done," the coach said. "We were counting on his points for put us in the competition."

A difficult draw didn't help Carmona either. His first-round opponent was the only other returning placer at 285, Black Hills senior Trever Lowery, and Carmona didn't get much going before Lowery pinned him at 3:49. Carmona then fell to Andrew McKibben of Granite Falls.

Freshman Amando DeLeon didn't look rattled at all by his first state trip, finishing fifth. He reached the semifinals after beating top-seeded Joe Sawyers of Klahowya (10-6) and Kofi Adjepong of Black Hills (11-8).

Martinez felt DeLeon was capable of beating Sawyers after the Othello coaches saw him at the Yakima SunDome Tournament, and they were right. That helped the freshman overcome what was perhaps the toughest weight class in the 2A tournament.

"You could tell his desire by when he lost to a kid (Deer Park's Brandon Leliefeld) that he had no business being with, but he was right there to the end," Martinez said. "That's the kind of attitude you want to have."

DeLeon's final match ended with a 7-4 victory over Mount Baker's Eli Jacoby.

Brothers Jake Smith and Kevin Smith each earned seventh-place medals for the Huskies.

"I'm really proud for that family, for those two kids, to do that," the coach said. "I don't think we've ever had two brothers place in the state tournament."

Jake Smith lost his first match at 112, falling 5-4 to River Ridge's Zach Sheffield. But he closed Friday on a high note with wins over Cedacrest's Omar Arredondo and Juan Farias of Burlington-Edison. He lost a close match to Ridgefield's Tyler Lefebvre on Saturday, then beat Anthony Bush of Ephrata for seventh.

Kevin Smith (152) showed some nerves despite being a senior, at least in his first match when Michael Fujimori of River Ridge pinned him at 1:31.

However, he beat Klahowya's Danny Zimny and Mount Baker's Ben Lavergne to reach the medal round, and followed a lopsided loss to Tylar Michaelis of Black Hills with a 13-5 triumph over Port Townsend's Brett Johnson.

Freshman Matt Jordan received a brutal draw at 119, opening with Nick Burnham of Black Hills. Burnham went on to win his second straight title after pinning Jordan at 5:28. Jordan was then eliminated with a pin by Bellingham's Garrett Montanez.

Quincy earned three medals, with Jackrabbit freshman Manny Ybarra leading the way with a fourth-place effort.

Ybarra's 130-pound draw began with an 8-3 victory over Mikey Varnell of Sultan. In the quarterfinals, Ybarra lost to Alex Nunez of W.F. West.

Needing a win over Medical Lake's John Daniels to reach day two, Ybarra got it with a 7-6 overtime decision. He then handled Aberdeen's Jake Grazioli and West Valley's Fiman before Nunez knocked him off again, 14-8, in the placing match.

At 135 pounds, senior Dan Somers closed his high school career with a fifth-place finish.

Somers lost a 7-2 decision to Ridgefield's Keegan Simmons. His answer? Three straight convincing consolation bracket wins - 10-0 over Grandview's Gilberto Godiinez, and pins of Deer Park's Billy Rhoads and Blaine's Jamal Mallak.

Mount Baker's Dawson Patrick beat Somers 19-5 to deny him a shot at third place, but the Quincy senior finished with a 9-4 win against Sequim's Joe Hutchison.

Armando Herrera was the Jacks' third placer, taking seventh at 125. His last win was an 8-2 decision over Blaine's DJ Duncan, and Herrera also ousted Travis Kinder of Mark Morris and Cameron Wade of Archbishop Murphy.

Breck Webley (160) was eliminated on Friday, losing to Steilacoom's Jordan Flynn and W.F. West's Cody Ray. Max Melburn suffered the same fate at 215, losing by pin to eventual champ Dan Escamilla of Selah and by pin to Aberdeen's Sawyer Smith.

Ephrata's Quinton Hendrickson topped the Tigers' placers with a seventh-place medal.

Hendrickson opened with a 3-2 win over Fife's Dain Landholm, then fell 8-3 to Marques Ford of River Ridge, the eventual champ. Hendrickson's consolation wins came against Tyson Foster of Blaine (2-0) and Kofi Adjepong of Black Hills (6-2).

Anthony Bush took eighth at 112 pounds, and wasn't far from a semifinal berth. He creamed Omar Arredondo of Cedarcrest 16-4, but lost an 8-6 overtime decision to River Ridge's Zach Sheffield in the quarters.

Bush closed the tourney with a 5-2 win over Ryan Unbedacht of Port Townsend, a loss by pin to Deer Park's Blake Adams, and a 5-2 loss to Othello's Jake Smith.

Ephrata 119-pounder Brenton Beard and 145-pounder Ryan Cross didn't make it past day one.

Beard won a 9-8 decision over Bellingham's Garrett Montanez, and gave Burnham perhaps his toughest test of the tourney in a 4-3 loss. He was ousted by Riverside's Ryan Major, 6-2.

Cross, a senior, finished his career with two straight defeats - 12-7 to Sehome's Justin Santos and a second-period pin to Cheney's Jason Skjothaug.